Would You Like To Be My Friend?
by FequalsMA
Summary: Lily begins to realize that she might have more in common with Marauders than she first thought.
1. Chapter 1

Severus had warned her about what it would do, when your family turned against you. Not that Lily had it as bad as Sev, nothing close, she knew that. But Petunia had turned on her, and at first, she felt like she could bear it. Not easily, never _easily_, but she _was_ strong enough. She was determined of that. Lily would be the strong witch that the sorting hat found that first day at Hogwarts, one of the worst- and best, in some ways- days of her life. But Severus never stopped insisting that one day, Petunia's betrayal would get to her. And when it did, it would be unbearable. And indeed, some days _were_ simply unbearable. The little things that would remind her of her childhood and the things she and Tuney would do together, innocently happy. Conversations that she'd hear and mentally note to tell Petunia about over Christmas because she _knew_ just how funny she'd find it. Spells that Petunia would love, once Lily was of age and able to perform them. But none of that existed, not anymore.

Some days, that would all get to her, and she just felt like curling up in a ball and crying, wondering if it was worth it. Was coming to Hogwarts worth the price of losing her sister?

And then at the end of fifth year she lost Severus for good- the very person who had counseled her through all of her hurt and loss the first time. Perhaps he'd done it on purpose, knowing that he would hurt her too, just as badly, one day, and that she'd need to know how to cope. Severus had indeed introduced her to the concept, but Lily coped in a method all her own. While Severus detached and withdrew from the outside world, Lily lost herself in it. She taught herself to look for the beauty in life, the little funny things, the tiny occurrences that brightened her day just a little bit. And she learned to value loyalty above all else.

It was one day during sixth year transfiguration that it finally happened. Overwhelmed with the start of term, her sister's and Severus's betrayal fresh in her mind because she had seen both of them nearly every day of the holiday, and frustrated beyond belief that she couldn't master the current transfiguration project she was working on with Remus, she truly felt like giving up. After six years of perfect attendance records, surely no one would care too much if she just stood up and stormed out now. Not even to the hospital wing, she thought with relish. Maybe nick a broom from the broom shed, and leave altogether. What she'd do, she didn't know, didn't care. All that mattered was that she wouldn't have to face that bloody Transfiguration exam tomorrow, and no one would ever find out how little she really knew. No one would find out what a fraud she'd been all these years, earning top marks when in reality she had no clue what she was doing.

"Um, Lily?" Remus looked down at her, his face undecided between anxious and amused. "If it makes you feel any better, I can't figure it out either."

"Hardly, since we're sharing a grade on this project. I'd be much happier if you said that you've known how to do it this whole time, but were hiding it from me, so as not to injure my ego."

"Sadly, no. Can you blame me for hoping the same about you?" Remus chuckled, apparently finding the situation amusing, at least to some degree. "Well, then, at least tomorrow we get a break from this torture to take our exam."

Lily just shot him a scathing look. Instead of continuing to console her, Remus leaned over to James. James was sitting at the other end of their table making an incredible amount of progress on the elaborate project he and Sirius had been assigned. Sirius sat across from him, playing with his eraser, transfiguring it back and forth between a golden snitch that lay limply on the table and a modified version of his eraser that changed colors every couple of seconds.

"Mate, _please_ will you help me study tonight night so I pass tomorrow?" Remus implored, attempting to win him over with a top notch puppy dog look. Evidently this was a continuation of a previous, apparently heated, argument.

"I told you this morning, Moony, I can't be bothered. Why're you so fussed anyway? You could afford to fail once, you know." Arrogance oozed from every word and gesture, although he actually looked at Remus through the entire speech, his eyes never once straying to Lily, she noted happily.

Remus groaned. "Well, for starters, though you rarely allow me to act as such, I _am_ a prefect." James huffed indignantly. "_And_ it's our mid-year exam. I'd rather not fail. Please? Just one night?"

James refused to budge.

"Sexual favors?"

"No!"

Lily clucked her tongue in irritation to hide her embarrassment.

Sirius grinned impishly. By now, he had perfected the snitch to fly a few feet off the table, and he flicked his wand casually, bringing it zooming back into his hand. "Aw, we wouldn't let you fail, mate. As tempting as the sexual favors sound, of course. As soon as I see the test, I'll just shout the answers over to you. And even if McGonnagal catches us, she'll have no choice but to stop the exam- everyone would have heard by then and it'll be too late."

"No, better," James continued, "would be a secret code. Like that Morse code that my Dad told me about once. One tap, a, two taps, b, three taps, c. It's easy enough."

"Yeah! We could get the whole class in on it," Sirius added excitedly, "we could have whole conversations!"

"I bet it wouldn't be too hard to learn- it might take a while to teach some of the thicker people in here, though." James glanced over at the Hufflepuffs meaningfully and began to tap exaggeratedly slowly at his desk with a stupid expression on his face, evidently what he thought was an accurate interpretation of how the Hufflepuffs would respond in the given situation.

"And if you can't understand something, just keep tapping," Sirius added through his laughter, adding to James' imitation with his own furious beat. Lily burst out laughing.

Four pairs of eyes landed on her in disbelief. Remus' look said something along the lines of, _Merlin Lily, get a grip. It was hardly funny._ James' look was so outrageously hopeful that Lily actually let out another raucous peal of laughter, as Sirius looked on as though she was mental. McGonagall's expression was the easiest to read, though. It said, _Detention! All of you! Honestly, I expected better from you, Lily. _

This, of course, sobered Lily right up, although it seemed to have the opposite effect on Sirius and James. Sirius made no attempt to hide his snickering, while James spoke up with a winning smile. "Please professor, I was just giving Remus a few helpful pointers, that's why we were talking. And I'm sure Lily's still feeling the effects of the cheering charms we were just practicing in charms class, I hardly think she'd normally disrespect your class like that."

McGonagall narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Potter, what Remus and Evans do in my class is none of your business, and I don't appreciate you making up lies to cover for your friends." James made a disbelieving noise. "Cheering charms are third year material, Potter." Sirius whistled appreciatively and McGonagall rounded on him furiously. "Detention! All three of you!"

The only thing that Lily could hear in the silence that followed was the fluttering of the wings of Sirius' snitch, which he'd accidentally let go in his disbelief.

"Which- which three?" Sirius faltered. Lily steeled herself, feeling like she already knew the answer to the dreaded question only Sirius had been brave enough to voice.

"You, Potter, and Evans!" Her tone implied _who else?_ Lily's jaw dropped. And then she burst out laughing again. "For the rest of the week." Lily endured a crazy sensation in which it felt like she was choking on her laughter. She was still outrageously amused but the laughter never left her lips, instead remaining trapped inside her, and she caught a glimpse of Sirius gripping his wand under the table, out of sight of McGonagall. Satisfied that Lily had finally gotten serious, McGonagall left them with a warning of more detentions, and dismissed class.

Once outside, Sirius grabbed Lily's arm before she could walk away, and spun her around to face him.

"Right, the counter jinx is tricky, ok, so to help out, try not to think of anything funny, and whatever you do, don't laugh. It'll only make it seem like you're resisting the jinx, and that just makes the jinx stronger."

Lily nodded. "Got it. Thanks, by the way."

Sirius finished the counter jinx with a final flourish. "No problem," he said easily. "It's a handy spell, really, I'll have to show it to you some time. You have no idea how many tight scrapes it's gotten us out of, especially with Moon- I mean, Remus, here. He laughs at the stupidest times and, as we have great cause to know, each bout of uncontrolled laughter is a week's worth of detentions, especially if you're already in trouble. So we made a point to learn that spell as soon as we found out about it."

Lily looked at Sirius with a whole new sense of appreciation. Never before had it occurred to her that it might have occurred to _Sirius_ to learn how to cover his tracks. It made him and his ridiculous gang of friends seem, not more _mature_, per se, but certainly more respectable in her book.

She grinned. "Well, I can't deny that I'm impressed. Where'd you hear about it anyway? The closest thing I can think of is the langlock curse, but it's remarkable how it's filtered to allow the subject to speak but not laugh."

James and Sirius glanced at Remus, who shrugged, resigned. "We invented the finer points of it," James told her proudly. "We used to use a variation on the langlock curse, which would basically prevent you from doing anything but breathing. Then the professors started to catch on, we think. So we combined the wand movement from the langlock curse with the theory behind the cheering charms, but reversed. It doesn't actually change the way you're thinking, it's just on the surface."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Well, I hesitate to think of the havoc you could wreak in transfiguration, since charms is hardly your best subject. But again, very impressive."

James grinned, like this small compliment meant the world to him. "Why thank you, Evans. But it was a group effort."

"Isn't everything with you guys?" The three boys shrugged in unison. "Case in point," Lily muttered.

They had reached the door to the common room by now, and James and Sirius turned to Remus expectantly. "Bubotuber." The Fat Lady ogled the four of them because, Lily realized with alarm, this was probably the first time that she was talking in a civilized manner to either James or Sirius, and no hexing had taken place during their entire walk back.

Perhaps James had noted this as well, and decided not to push it. He didn't even hesitate as the Fat Lady's portrait swung open, but strode right in first, rather than trying to make a big show of waiting for Lily to go first. Then again, maybe James knew how reluctant she would be to turn her back on him, and decided to save himself the embarrassment.

When he got to the other side of the common room, James turned around with a cheeky grin. "See you in detention, Evans!" He winked and disappeared up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

The common room went completely silent as every pair of eyes landed on Lily. She turned beat red and fled up the stairs to her dorm, which was, thankfully, empty. She needed some peace and quiet before facing detention, Marauder style.

About an hour and a half later, Alice, Sima, and Brita came up the stairs to the dormitory they shared with Lily. Brita and Sima immediately got out their school books, bemoaning the volume of muggle studies homework they had just accumulated, but Alice came over to sit on Lily's bed at once. She drew the curtains and cast a muffliato spell around them, with the air of one who has a particular piece of juicy gossip to share.

Alice took a deep breath. "Someone, I have no idea who, started this ridiculous rumor that you have detention all week with- get this- Potter and Black."

Lily shifted uncomfortably. "Well, technically…"

Alice gasped. "No freaking way! Tell me everything!"

"Yeah, I have detention." Lily sighed. It was a long, strange story. She still wasn't quite sure what had happened. "But it totally wasn't my fault! You should have seen it; I have no idea what got into McGonagall, anyway. One second, Potter, Black, and Remus are causing their usual disturbance, making stupid jokes. And I-" Lily paused, quite unwilling to share what had happened next.

"Go on…"

"I laughed. Just one tiny, innocent little giggle. Honestly, the stupid joke wasn't even funny, but I just couldn't help myself, and that's when she came over fit to kill. So by that time, I completely can't control myself and then Sirius puts this jinx on me that the four of them apparently invented which prevents the subject from laughing, and it probably saved me from another week's worth of detention and about a hundred house points."

Alice laughed. "Gosh, I guess I forget because they're always causing so much trouble, but they are smart. No one can deny that."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that they're first rate idiots. Although," she added thoughtfully, "they do have a decent side. I'm not sure if it was just because, you know, James has his eye on me, but Sirius was being really nice. And not like charity, either. He just did it straight away, without even thinking about it."

Alice pursed her lips indecisively. "They're a very tight little clique. I bet it's been one of their core rules since first year not to do anything nasty to you. James gets very territorial about his friends, and… you."

Lily grimaced. "You know, you're right. Everyone else here has been the target of some pretty serious pranking over the years, but I've gotten off remarkably easily." She sighed. Which had made it perfectly easy to hate James Potter on principle, in the past. Relentlessly singling her out and putting her on a pedestal wasn't really the romantic gesture that James clearly hoped it was. But it appeared that, for today at least, his ridiculous group had changed tactics, and were now treating her like a normal person. No, more than that. Like a friend.

"Well, I like this turn of events. Maybe, you know, he's starting to get over me. It was mostly Sirius doing the talking, anyway, and no one was treating me like a goddess. I was just a normal human being to them. And it was their own necks they were saving as much as mine."

"Ha!" Alice laughed in delight. "That would just be a classic Sirius! Do something that benefits him, and make it look like he's lending you a hand. Then you feel guilty and grateful, and all that bull, and then before you know it, you've worked it up in your head so that you owe him one."

Lily considered. It certainly seemed like something the infamous marauders would do. And this was the perfect way to end this conversation, so she nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Besides, he owes me big from all those points I never took off last year during his and James' ill-fated midnight kitchen raid."

Just then, Brita poked her head through the curtains, causing Lily to jump violently and hit her head.

"Sorry, guys, I've been yelling for you for like ten minutes. What's with the silencing charm?"

Rubbing her head and wincing, Lily removed the charm quickly, glancing sheepishly at Alice. "Alice thought she had some gossip about me to share, but as it turns out, it was true. So if you hear someone spreading rumors that I have detention with Potter and Black, don't bother hexing them, 'cause I do," Lily explained, somewhat defensively.

Brita just shrugged. "Well, any idiot would know it wasn't your fault. Besides, they probably have a million tricks to make the work go faster. How bad could it be, really?"


	2. Chapter 2

At seven fifty-five sharp that evening, two black haired boys would tramp loudly down their dormitory stairs, laughing and joking about quidditch tryouts the next day. Those in the common room might have wondered how anyone could talk about the tryouts with such cavalier disregard, unless they took note that the boys were James Potter and Sirius Black. A third year named Susie Martin stifled a gasp as the two boys pointed their wands at her in unison. Careful to make sure that her parchment and ink bottle remained undisturbed, James and Sirius levitated her chair and table briefly and walked under her before lifting the spell, setting Susie gently back down. They continued on their way as though nothing had happened. This sort of thing happened once or twice more as they continued their straight path to the portrait hole.

"Is that really necessary?" Lily hissed. She'd been watching the scene unfold from the portrait hole and just managed to contain her anger enough to refrain from docking points. On the other hand, she didn't award any points to Gryffindor, either, as she normally would have done for students performing magic above their year. Lily thought she recognized highly advanced seventh year spell work used to magically join several objects and then levitate them with only one spell.

"We only just worked out how to do it," James looked affronted, and slightly puzzled. "Of course it was necessary!"

"Whatever." Lily rolled her eyes. "We're late for Filch. C'mon."

"Not that way," Sirius steered her in the opposite direction that she'd been heading.

"What?"

"Peeves is over there waiting to ambush. Besides, it never hurt anyone to be late for detention. Filch is never on time."

"As you have great cause to know, I'm sure." Sirius winked. "How do you know about Peeves, anyway?"

"Ask us no questions, we'll tell you no lies."

The walk to the trophy room took an extra five minutes because of the roundabout route Sirius insisted they take. But, true to his word, the three never met Peeves, and Filch had yet to show up by the time they finally got there, seven minutes late.

"I advised him not to talk too much tonight, by the way," Sirius whispered conspiratorially to Lily after Filch had given them the dreaded task, cleaning the entire trophy room without magic. "He really is quite the interesting fellow," he promised. "But he was pretty nervous, so you know, he might have said something really stupid and ruined whatever slim chance with you he had left."

Lily just nodded, pretending to take it all in stride. It made her very uncomfortable to discuss James' fascination with her with James' best mate, especially when Sirius insisted on making it out to be much more than a crush.

Sirius grinned. "Just thought I ought to let you know, since it was my idea and everything."

"Right." Lily cleared her throat. "Now, about these trophies…"

Sirius grinned at James. "Well, she is a first timer… but she's clever. Think she can figure out the secret?"

"I don't know, mate. Sure, she's clever, but prefects don't like to break the rules, do they?"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Never having had a detention shouldn't automatically make Lily some kind of second class citizen. "No, wait! Can't believe I was stupid enough to ask! Of course, famous Potter and Black don't bother to play by the rules, even when they're being punished for that very crime. Nope, they probably go ahead and use magic to clean the trophy room, isn't that right?'

Identical smirks confirmed her suspicions. "And now I have to figure out how to do it without the professors noticing- or rather, how to use magic at all. I'm certain there's a charm to prevent it." James had an expression sort of like the one Flitwick wore whenever Lily accomplished a charm well beyond her year. Sirius, on the other hand, looked sour, as though he sorely regretted giving Lily the chance to one-up him.

Lily pointed her wand at James'. "Expeliarmus." Though James held his wand loosely at his side, it didn't move an inch. Lily nodded thoughtfully. "I expected so. I noticed something off the second I walked through the door. And I know you need something to attach these sort of wards to, so I assume that was the spell. But I need to go outside to remove it, and anyone could be out there and spot me 'cause I can't perform the disillusion charm on myself inside, obviously."

"I'll check to make sure no one's outside," James began excitedly, "and then you can-"

"Hold up!" Sirius interjected. He narrowed his eyes at Lily. "You act like you can just take down the magic ward, no problem. Do you even realize who put it up?"

"Not Filch, I presume." Lily shot him a scathing look. "McGonagall, of course! And yes, Black, I'm fairly certain that I can take down the magic ward. It's just going to take about fifteen minutes or so of unbroken concentration, and then another fifteen to put it back up afterward. I might rather just clean up without magic."

Both James and Sirius looked scandalized, until they realized she was joking.

"So that's it, right? Your big secret?"

James shrugged. "When you figure it out straight off like that, it's not quite as impressive. But, yeah." He grinned. "Well, I'll check to see if anyone's outside, and then we can go perform the disillusionment charms."

Lily sighed in relief. She wouldn't have put it past the two boys to make her take down the wards all by herself, as part of some bizarre Marauder initiation ritual they'd devised. There was just one problem. "What do you mean, you'll check to see that no one's coming?"

"Unfortunately, I can't tell you." His eyes shifted to Sirius' for a second. "I mean, I doubt that Sirius would mind, but we have to clear it with Remus and Peter. So I'll have to cast obliviate on you for a second- crap! I can't do magic in here."

James looked at a complete loss. Lily hid her laughter. "How about I just close my eyes?"

"Right." James laughed embarrassedly. Sirius chuckled.

Mere seconds passed before James declared it safe to go outside. James and Sirius truly were brilliant, taking only minutes to become so invisible that Lily accidentally stepped on James' toe (payback for years of torment), and then jumping enthusiastically into the task of removing McGonagall's well-placed ward. James and Sirius worked together flawlessly as a team, needing no communication to understand what the other was about to do, or how they were going to divide up the task. What Lily hadn't expected was that she'd fit right in with them. It was easier to focus when she wasn't constantly reminded that it was James and Sirius standing on either side of her. With the disillusion charms in place, they were just three brilliant wizards silently working together. Lily tried desperately to remember each layer of McGonagall's ward as they disintegrated, since she'd have to recreate them perfectly before midnight. She gasped in amazement when the entire doorway lit up halfway through the process, resembling something close to a spider web. James and Sirius each held a top corner in place with their wands and Lily tackled the final portion of the ward.

"Ha!" Lily exclaimed in triumph when she finally located the magical pivot of the web. She unraveled it with a final flourish and the vibrantly glowing barrier disappeared. James, Lily, and Sirius went back inside, and removed their disillusionment charms successfully. In a matter of minutes, they had the entire room spotless.

"Nice going, mates!" Sirius looked at his watch. "New record."

Lily laughed. "Only you would make it a contest. So what do we do now?"

James was already busy casting a silencing charm on the door, but Sirius grinned wickedly. "Anything we want, of course!" He dug around in his bag until he came up with a small mirror.

"Remus Lupin!" He told it confidently. The mirror went blank momentarily before Remus' face flickered into view.

"Where do you come up with all this stuff?" She asked, bemused.

James fidgeted nervously with the hem of his robes. "We're from two of the oldest pure blood families left. You could fill an entire museum with all the relics and magical items in our houses."

"Right." It was a little hard to take everything in, sometimes, when she was talking to James.

Sirius looked up at Lily from where he was sprawled out on the floor with his mirror. "Want Remus to bring you some homework, Lily? We've got a few hours on our hands, and he offered to drop by."

Lily shrugged. "No, thanks. I'm rather enjoying this perfect excuse not to study."

"Who would have ever thought?" He turned back to Remus. "Moony, you're gonna have to watch this one, or she might start shirking her prefect duties soon."

Lily snorted. "As if."

Ten minutes later, Sirius and Remus were still chattering away through the mirror, and since there was really only room for one person in front of the mirror, it left James and Lily with nothing to do. After a few awkward moments of silence, James pulled his wand out of his pocket and started transfiguring pretty much everything in sight to whatever he could think of. Finally, when he resorted to transfiguring his trainers into rollerblades, Lily sighed. She supposed it wasn't his fault that he was so good at transfiguration. He probably wasn't intending to show off, but with every elaborate transfiguration that he performed, Lily grew more and more apprehensive about her exam the next day. First she'd had the first detention of her life- not the worst thing in the world, she had to admit, but she certainly didn't want to follow it with her first Dreadful or Troll in transfiguration. Her options were limited. Either hang out here until midnight and then try to study when she got let off, or tell Sirius to ask Remus to bring her the transfiguration book, and try to learn it all now. No matter how she sliced it, there was just no way she'd get an O or and E. Studying her hardest, she'd pull off an Acceptable at best. And since it was the midyear exam (why anyone decided to change the usual midyear essay to an exam was beyond Lily) it affected whether Lily would be allowed to continue with transfiguration next year.

James cursed loudly, bringing Lily out of her reverie. He was sprawled across the floor, moaning loudly, and blood was gushing from his left knee.

"You prat!" Sirius jumped up and the mirror clattered to the floor. He pointed furiously at James' rollerblade sneakers, which were clearly the cause of the current state of affairs. "How are we going to explain this to Madam Pomfrey?"

"It's fine, I don't need the hospital wing. Just conjure up a bandage, why don't you?" James was vanishing the spilled blood at frequent intervals, but it just kept pooling up on the floor. It was lucky that Lily had a strong stomach.

Sirius waved his wand and came up with the largest band-aid Lily had ever seen. James gave up on vanishing the blood on the floor and set to work on his knee, trying to get a clear surface so the band-aide could stick. That was when it finally dawned on Lily.

"Wait a minute. Don't tell me… neither of you know how to heal wounds?"

James and Sirius snapped their heads toward Lily so fast it was comical. "Do you?"

Lily laughed, then checked herself, not wanting to seem rude. "Sure. Here, hold out your leg." She fixed the scrape easily, then pointed her wand at the blood that was still dripping down his shin and had soaked through his robes. "Tergeo. That ought to do it."

James thanked her sheepishly.

"I can't believe neither of you know basic healing charms." After all the mischief they'd caused over the years, and both of them growing up in magical households, how had neither of them bothered to look it up? "Seriously, guys, you never learned? Wow. I guess the two smartest blokes in school aren't quite up to the standard to which everyone holds them."

James scowled at her. "Still can't believe that you and Remus haven't figured out how to finish your project yet."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll bite. You owe me anyway. Will you teach me transfiguration tonight? Please?"

James waggled his eyebrows and smiled. It was the slightly lopsided smile that always set Lily on edge, wondering what he was planning now. "I thought you'd never ask. But since I helped invent the spell that saved you from detention, I don't actually owe you. So, I'll help you tonight, if you spend an equal amount of time helping me with my charms essay."

That pulled Lily up short. He probably didn't even need help, just wanted an excuse to spend time with her.

"Alright," she allowed. "As long as no one knows about it."

James tilted his head considering. "If you come to Hogsmeade with me."

Lily made a disbelieving sound. "That defeats the whole purpose of people _not finding out_!"

"As friends."

What the hell? "No!"

"Then why can't I talk to you in public?"

"I won't help you on your charms essay."

"Then you fail transfiguration," he countered with a triumphant smirk. "Is that really what you want?"

Lily huffed, but stood her ground. "The worst that could happen would be I'd get an Acceptable. It's still a pass."

"A Lily Evens failure, though, hmm?" He raised his eyebrows. "As I understand it, you intend to continue on to seventh year transfiguration?"

Lily briefly ran through her options and came up blank. "Fine! You win!" She waved her hand as if giving him the go-ahead to set whatever conditions he wished.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed happily. "I'll get you at least an E tomorrow, and during tomorrow's detention, you'll review my charms essay and make whatever corrections you deem necessary."

Lily waited.

"That's it. No strings attached." James chucked at her disbelief. "I'm not always a prat, you know. I _can_ be nice. Or, well, average, at any rate." He looked at Sirius for confirmation, who had been watching the exchange with rapt attention.

Sirius pursed his lips but shrugged, allowing it. "Yeah, sure."

"See?"

"Alright then." Lily extended her hand, and James approached it warily. He noticed Lily frowning at him, and apologized quickly.

"Sorry, old habits die hard. A year ago if I touched you, the hexing you'd have given me would have taken Sirius and Remus' combined efforts at least twenty minutes to undo."

Lily laughed and grabbed James' hand, shaking it. "I hadn't realized how much trouble I caused your friends. But I guess I did come up with some pretty obscure jinxes, didn't I?" Lily held back more laughter at some of the more amusing memories.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Are you kidding? We actually had to frequent Madam Pomfrey during fifth year, which is why we made him stop his advances. It was getting to be too much work to look everything up in the library."

James glared at him, blushing slightly.

Lily tried not to smile. "Well, hey. It's all behind us now, right?"

"Of course," Sirius declared at once, kicking James. He yelped loudly and elbowed Sirius in the gut, then turned to Lily.

"Of course."

"So…. Why don't we all go to Hogsmeade together?"

James' jaw dropped, and Sirius snickered.

Lily persevered. "Yeah, why not? As friends. I'll see if Alice wants to come, too. It'll be fun."

"What makes you say that?" Sirius asked.

"Well." Lily hesitated. "I've, uh, had fun today. For the first time in a while."

Sirius stared at her.

"Not like I don't ever have fun," she clarified, trying to sound remotely sane. "But, you know, the whole thing with Severus. He was my best friend, and it's just not the same hanging round with Alice every day."

To his credit, James didn't make a single comment badmouthing Sev. Sirius snickered but tactfully turned it into a cough midway. Lily raised her eyebrows, giving Sirius a grudging "Passable."

"Thanks."

"So," James began, impatiently changing back the subject. "You really want to hang round with the Marauders for an entire day in Hogsmede?"

Lily shrugged. "Why not?"

"I can think of a few reasons."

"Sirius!" James and Lily exclaimed in unison.

"What on earth is wrong with me spending some innocent time in Hogsmede with you guys and your friends?"

"Like I said, lots of things. But there's plenty of time for you to figure all that out later!" He waved his hand airily. "For now, you'll be an honorary Marauder!"

"_What?_" James and Lily shrieked.

"Guys, chill. I already talked it over with Moony and Wormtail. We agreed that we've pretty much maxed out as a group. We've reached the height of our awesomeness and mischief making potential. So we were thinking that we'd induct a new member, but we couldn't think of anyone. We agreed that if we find someone who's just as brilliant as the rest of us, has a sense of humor, and would fit in the group dynamic, we'd go for it. And this is perfect because Lily already knows about Moony's condition."

James eyes were wide with horror. "You really don't have to accept, Lily."

Lily was caught off guard. "Wait, you don't want me to join?"

"There's nothing to join! We're just a group of friends, you guys are making it sound like some creepy cult. But yeah," he half smiled, "you won't find a better group of friends anywhere else."

Sirius cut in. "Yeah, don't pay attention to James. He's just worried that this would ruin any chance he has with you because you'll have a front row seat to all the mayhem he concocts. Not to mention rules- and laws- we brake on the daily."

James glared at him. Sirius raised his eyebrows, daring James to contradict.

Lily had something else on her mind, though. "Laws. You break laws."

James gulped. "Well, really only one main law. I think." Half a glance at Sirius. "That's it, right?"

Sirius waved a hand. "Eh, who knows? Who cares, anyway? Point is, Lily needs to be prepared to support law breaking for good cause."

Lily sighed. "Alright. I'll join." James grinned and Sirius whooped loudly. "But first, I want to know what laws you're breaking and why you're doing it. If it's dangerous or hurts anyone, I'm not joining," she promised.

"Ok!" Sirius said happily. "And by the way, you already know the reason for our law breaking."

"I do?"

"She does?" James sounded just as confused as Lily was.

"Yes, James." Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's to help Moony's… furry little problem. Which, by the way is referring to his condition, not a pet rabbit. Just so you-"

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot, I figured that out."

"Huh. Maybe we could have come up with a better code name, yeah?"

"Mmm. Don't let Severus hear you calling it that. I've been covering for Remus for some time now with Sev. He's not completely convinced. But you know how you always tell people that he's visiting his sick mother? Well, I've been trying to convince him that something about his mom's condition is cyclic. There are actually a ton of wizarding diseases based loosely on the cycles of the moon."

"And he believed you?" Sirius asked, impressed.

"Well, no. Not really. But it hardly matters anymore, since we're not speaking."

There was a short, awkward pause in which they all stared at various points around the room avidly. James cleared his throat. "I really appreciate that, though. That you cared enough to cover for Remus."

"Of course! I mean, I'm friends with him, I don't want Severus to tell the whole school or something dreadful. But to tell you the truth, it was more than that. I'm worried that Remus might get… recruited. If Severus tells people, and if they believe him. Well, Voldemort is recruiting dark creatures, isn't he?" Lily took a shaky breath. "Of course he wouldn't join. I know he'd never do that. But what if he had no choice? What if he forced Remus?" Lily's throat became suddenly tight and she stopped speaking abruptly.

James looked at a loss for words. "On the one hand, you look like you could use a hug. But on the other hand… you'd probably kill me for trying."

"Yes, please _don't_ hug me," she snapped. Then realizing she'd been a little harsh, added awkwardly, "but I appreciate the sentiment."

James made an uncomfortable noise as if to say, "no problem! Anytime."

Not for the first time that evening, Sirius broke the uncomfortable silence. "I'll give you a hug for him, then," he said cheerfully.

Lily rolled her eyes but accepted the hug.

"Bugger!" James shouted suddenly.

"Merlin, James. Contain yourself please, I wasn't making a move on Evans!"

James had jumped up and was gesturing frantically. "No, no, prat! We only have twenty-five minutes to get everything back in shape! Hurry, do the disillusionment charms again."

He was right. Putting up a magic ward often took longer than taking it down. Plus, Lily wouldn't be surprised if McGonagall came to check on them early. They would have to work very quickly to finish in time.

Lily hopped into action, tapping herself on the head with her wand. James and Sirius had already disappeared, leaving Lily completely bewildered as to how they'd done it so quickly. Thirty seconds or so later, Lily had all but disappeared from her own vision. She heard James' voice coming from outside the classroom.

"Oi, hurry up, are you out here yet?"

"Yeah. How did you do that so fast?"

"No time. We'll tell you later. Start from the top left corner and work clockwise. Just do the minimum job; I'll be doing counterclockwise and Sirius'll strengthen as we go. Ok?"

Lily nodded before remembering she was invisible. "Got it."

Putting the ward up was tricky, but certainly easier with three people. Hastily, Lily performed the charm on her designated corner and silently moved her wand around and around the doorframe.

It was slow going, and the work got more difficult as they progressed, but twenty minutes later, they finished. Lily wiped her brow, exhausted. "Ok, make sure no one's around before you remove your disillusionment charms."

She walked a few more steps into the hallway to get a better look around the statue of Barnimus the Barmy. She declared that the coast was clear, but James and Sirius were already inside the room, quite visible. Sighing, Lily decided to let it go. She removed her charm and walked back inside, stowing her wand.

When McGonagall came back at midnight (how had the time passed so quickly?), she merely raised an eyebrow. "I half expected to have to call in Madam Pomphrey to clean up the mess of hexing you two might have given each other." Lily went red, abashed. "But I'm pleased to see that you've put aside your ever present arguments to work together."

McGonagall signed off on the detention slips and ushered the three of them out of the room. "Straight to Gryffindor tower, then! No detours!"


	3. Chapter 3

Four hours later, James had gone to the kitchens for a quick coffee run, leaving Lily and Sirius alone in the common room. The room had been deserted since they had gotten back from their detentions, so they had their transfiguration notes spread out on the table near the fire. Lily buried her head in her hands, so tired she felt like she might pass out. Sirius prodded her awake with his wand.

Blearily, she sat up again. "Can I ask you a question?"

Sirius grinned. "Sure. Can't guarantee I'll answer it honestly, though."

"You don't have to answer at all if you don't want to. It's probably really insensitive of me to ask it. I know we're not really friends."

Sirius sobered up at her change in tone. "I know. I mean, we've spent the better portion of the last five years at each other's' throats. But, for what it's worth, I like and respect you. And I trust you. Even though we're not friends."

"Thanks. And, for what it's worth, I like and respect you, too. As surprising as that may sound. And I do trust you, with the important stuff. I mean, would I trust you with tomorrow night's history of magic homework? Not a chance. But with someone's life? Pretty much unconditionally, yeah." Sirius looked pleased with himself, and Lily could only guess that he didn't get that sort of compliment from people like Lily very often. "That's kind of my question, though. Are you worried for what comes next? I mean, I've been sitting here, so worried about my parents and my sister and myself, but you! I know your parents don't like you very much, but… they're still going to expect you to join Voldemort, aren't they? And of course, you'd say no, but what if they don't give you that option?"

Sirius considered. "I've been thinking for a while now, and I've got sort of a plan. James and Remus and Peter are helping me with the details. Well, really mostly Remus; he's definitely the one with the most common sense of the four of us. With any luck, no one will ask me to join."

"You're going to get them to disown you?" Lily asked.

Sirius nodded. "Don't tell anyone. I can't have Regulus or any Slytherins finding out and messing about with things. If my parents realize what I'm trying to do, I'm sure it won't work."

"How are you going to do it?" She didn't bother asking what he'd do after it was done. Of course he would live with the Potters. Lily knew he already spent Christmas holidays and most of his summers over there, anyway.

Sirius heaved a sigh. "Still not sure, unfortunately. There's a fine line between getting disowned and getting imprisoned in that house, after all. We're thinking of bringing in reinforcements when I do the deed. Probably just James, since he's a pretty solid dueler. He's pureblood, and of course, he's underage, so we're hoping he won't register."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Right. Forgot you don't know how sick my family is. We have sort of a filter around the house, and once anyone who's not pureblood steps through it, my parents know. More than that, if you don't have enough magical blood, you can't enter. In fact, you probably wouldn't be able to see it." Sirius chuckled darkly. "Anyway, it also detects wizards who are overage, possessing a certain amount of magical power. Just in case it's someone threatening the head of the house. My father," Sirius added, sensing Lily's confusion.

"Right."

"So James'll probably come round over Christmas, I'll get disowned, and we'll apparate to his place. The Potters have a ton of protective charms and stuff, so my parents won't be able to follow me."

Lily didn't know what to say to that, but it hardly mattered. At that moment, James came bounding into the room with three steaming mugs of coffee.

"What'd I miss?"

The heavy mood seemed to drop instantly. Lily laughed. "Well, Sirius and I declared our unfriendship, but mutual like and respect. And he told me about you guys' plan to get him disowned."

Sirius threw an arm around Lily. "Yup, that pretty much sums it up."

James looked back and forth between them, seemingly confused. He shrugged and gave them each a cup of coffee. "Um, ok. Well." He addressed Lily in a businesslike fashion. "You have all of the laws and theories memorized, and you've mastered everything that's going to be on the exam tomorrow- with the spoken incantation. We have two hours remaining before I reach my limit of sleep deprivation and collapse on the floor. I think you can get everything down silently before then. Ready?"

"Born ready," Lily grumbled sarcastically. But true to his word, James did coach Lily until she had mastered absolutely everything about Transfiguration that could possibly be on the test. Also true to his word, no sooner had the clock struck six, James was sound asleep on the floor in front of the fire, snoring loudly.

Sirius downed the rest of his coffee. "Well, it's no use going to bed now, is it? Let's get him upstairs and clean up this mess." It was true, the common room looked little better than if there had been a post match victory party, with parchment strewn all over the room, and almost everything in sight transfigured in some way, shape, or form. Lily sighed.

"Alright, then. Wingardium leviosa. Mobiliarbus." She followed Sirius up to the sixth year boys dormitory, James floating along in front of her.

Sirius paused before opening the door, turning around to put a finger to his lips. Lily rolled her eyes in acknowledgement.

Just as she had set James down in the bed Sirius indicated was his, she heard a rustling from one of the other beds, and the curtains were pulled back to reveal a bleary-eyed Peter. "Oi! What have you done to him?"

Lily looked up in alarm, lowering her wand, which had still been pointed at James. "Nothing! Be quiet!"

Peter looked at Lily incredulously. "Everyone here's either already awake or so dead to the world that I doubt a tornado could wake them," he said furiously, indicating James. "Between Remus coming in at midnight and now you two causing a raucous, I've only slept about three hours!"

Remus chose this moment to open his bed curtains as well. "You guys are wizards," he groaned. "Would a silencing charm be too much to ask when you feel the urge to shout at-" he checked his watch- "six in the morning? Oh, hey, Lily."

Lily suddenly found three of the four Marauders staring avidly at her. Sirius, at least, seemed to be enjoying himself. "What did you do to James, anyway?" Peter pressed.

"Nothing!" Lily repeated furiously. "I've done nothing to James! We were studying and he fell asleep so we were bringing him back up here, and I was about to leave when you wake up and start shouting!"

James groaned and opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. "What the hell is Lily doing here?" Before anyone could begin to explain, he rolled over with a muffled "whatever, guys, I'm going back to sleep."

"I'm leaving," Lily announced. "See you all at breakfast." She ran from the room before the night could get any more ridiculous.

Lily sat with Alice and Brita during breakfast, but since neither of them had transfiguration with Lily, they were chatting away happily, oblivious to Lily's near coma state of drowsiness.

"And you know there's that Hogsmeade weekend coming up soon, he could always ask you then, right? Maybe he's waiting to make it really special." Alice was consoling Brita because she and the seventh year Ravenclaw prefect, Jake, had kissed three days ago, and hadn't spoken since. Lily rolled her eyes. _It's as if Brita's incapable of walking ten feet to the Ravenclaw table and just asking Jake herself_. It was times like these that Lily seriously wondered why she hung round with these girls.

"Jeez, Lily, someone got up on the wrong side of bed this morning!" Alice furrowed her brow, trying to figure out why Lily was in such a bad mood. Whoops, Lily must have said that out loud. "Detention go badly?"

Lily groaned. "Detention was fine. It's the transfiguration exam today, I was up literally all night studying for it."

Having no appetite for breakfast, Lily got up and swung her bag over her shoulder. She left without apologizing to Brita, because really, it made every bit of sense to just go talk to Jake.

"Lily, wait up!" It was Remus. Lily sighed in relief, since Remus was just about the only person right now that she wasn't at least slightly infuriated by.

"Yeah?"

"Emergency prefect meeting at seven tonight. I just got the message from Dumbledore."

"Ok, sure. D'you know what it's about?" Lily asked.

"No idea. Just make sure you're on time, we're meeting in Dumbledore's office, so it sounds serious."

"Alright, I'll be there."

"I have to get my books. I'll see you in transfiguration, Lily."

"See you!"

Lily headed up to the north tower, where she had history of magic with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. But between her conversation with Remus and her preoccupation with her upcoming exam, there was little room in her mind for focusing on history. Brita and Alice must have spread the word to Sima and Reyna that Lily was in a terrible mood, because no one bothered her all through class. The Gryffindors in History of Magic included four of the five girls (Alice hadn't passed her O.W.L) and Peter Pettigrew. The other three boys seemed to have better sense than to continue on with such a terribly boring subject, and all three were smart enough that they could afford to discard a subject in which they'd earned an O.W.L. Peter, on the other hand, passed so few of his O.W.L.s that because he'd gotten an Acceptable on History of Magic, he had to continue, or else he wouldn't have had enough credits. Lily could have done the same as James, Sirius, and Remus, but foolishly, had opted for History of Magic over Muggle Studies.

Class passed rather quickly, which Lily supposed wasn't surprising, seeing as how she was dreading transfiguration so intensely. She met up with Remus after class and they walked to transfiguration together in silence. Remus was muttering laws and theories under his breath, but Lily's mind felt like a blank slate. Random images and words floated across from time to time, and she shook her head sharply, trying in vain to focus as they entered the classroom and took their seats.

Lily hurried through dinner, sitting with the Marauders to get a chance to thank James and Sirius for their help the night before.

"Are you sure you did ok on no sleep?" She asked James with concern. Lily would hate to be responsible for James Potter, top transfiguration student, to get less than an outstanding on his midyear exam.

He just laughed her concern off, though, shoveling treacle tart into his mouth and swallowing spectacularly before responding.

"Lily, c'mon! I did fine. And even if I missed a couple questions, my average is so high that I can swing it."

Lily didn't miss the look that Alice and Brita, sitting a couple seats away, shared while James was talking. And a couple days ago, Lily might have been sharing that condescending look right along with them. But hey, the guy had spent all night coaching her on transfiguration. Lily knew how smart James was; when he said it out loud, he wasn't actually bragging, just stating a fact to reassure Lily. So she rolled her eyes at Alice and turned to James.

"Great! I wouldn't want you slipping to second place on my count," she teased. She stuffed the last bit of potato into her mouth and jumped up from the table. "Ready to go, Remus?"

Remus had barely started his dinner and looked sadly at his plate piled high with steak and kidney pie. "I guess Dumbledore doesn't really care to wait for me to finish dinner."

Lily laughed. "C'mon, we'll stop in the kitchens on the way back. We're going to be late if we don't leave now!"


	4. Chapter 4

Lily met James and Sirius at the owelry later that night, having said goodbye to Remus after their prefect's meeting with Dumbledore. Never had she been more grateful than she was now for James' and Sirius' antics because the owelry looked and smelled as though it hadn't been cleaned since long before Dumbledore was born. James and Sirius greeted her at the door with identical impish grins. Lily groaned.

"Why do I feel like I'm about to walk into something that I'd do better to avoid?"

"It's the natural feeling that comes with being in a Marauder's presence," Sirius told her seriously.

James threw him a dirty look. "We've done nothing! We took down the magic ward while we were waiting for you, is all."

"Eh, ok. Well, thanks. I guess we'd better get started, then."

"Not so fast! You have to tell us about your meeting with Dumbledore, of course."

Lily frowned at Sirius. "I'm really not supposed to talk about it, you know."

"Oh, come on. Remus will be asleep by the time we get upstairs and then we'll have to wake him up so he can tell us."

"And believe me," James added. "We don't want to wake Remus. He'll dole out such a hexing that we'll probably need you to undo it. So then we'd have to wake you up, too." James had a go at a persuasive puppy dog look, and Lily tried to tell herself that she wasn't swayed.

"Nice try, Potter. But last time I checked, you can't be a bloke and get up the stairs to my dormitory."

Sirius smiled wickedly. "It's been done before."

Lily choked. "You- how? You've been in the girls' dormitories? I can't believe you, Black!"

"As flattering as I find your speechlessness in my presence, _Evans_, it wasn't me."

Lily drew in a breath sharply and whipped her head around to scrutinize James. "_You've_ been up in our dormitory? With _who_?"

James faltered back a step looking nervously at Lily's wand. "It wasn't me, I swear."

Lily laughed. "Please. I know Remus wouldn't and I know that Pettigrew isn't cleaver enough to get past the enchantment. So which one of you was it?"

"You'd be surprised at what Peter can accomplish for a good cause, Lily." Sirius said sharply.

Evidently, criticizing Pettigrew was strictly against the code of conduct of James' and Sirius' little group, although it was abundantly clear to any outsider that Peter was the weak link in the chain.

Lily tried her best to look abashed. "Right. I guess I shouldn't assume he's not cleaver." Although she did think it was dodgy that Peter Pettigrew, the bloke who quite a few fourth years were smarter than, could have somehow hoodwinked the stairs to her dorm forget that he was a boy. Not to mention, that he would have any cause to be in the girls' dorm. But she wasn't in the mood to get into an argument over the sixth year Gryffindor that she knew the least, so she let it go.

James brought her out of her reverie. "Back to the point, Lily. What happened tonight at the prefects' meeting?"

Lily sighed and set a mop to scrub the floor while she ran over the events of the night in her head.

_She and Remus had arrived at the Headmaster's office out of breath as they'd ran all the way from the great hall. Rumors had been flying all day between the prefects and even some of the younger students about the meeting. Only once before had there been an emergency meeting with all of the prefects, and that time had followed a major attack on a Muggle village near Hogsmede._

_"__Do you think there's been another attack?" Lily heard a second year Hufflepuff whisper nervously to his friend earlier that morning._

_"__Oh, definately," the friend said gravely, nodding his head. "Dumbledore wouldn't call such an important meeting if it weren't something serious. Do you know that _I_ was the one he asked to deliver the message to the Hufflepuff prefects?"_

_"__Yeah, Finn, you haven't stopped talking about it since this morning."_

_Some students assumed a second attack on Muggles, some thought it was about a suspected attack on the school, and many of the Gryffindors were convinced the meeting was going to address the group of sixth and seventh year students who were rumored to be joining forces with Voldemort. Some students were even convinced that Dumbledore was on his death bed._

_And although Lily believed nothing of what she heard, she couldn't help her apprehension as she and Remus entered the meeting. The Head Boy and Girl were conferring quietly with Dumbledore, but he stopped the conversation by holding up a hand as Lily and Remus walked in the door. He turned to the room at large and smiled._

_"__It seems we're all present and accounted for. Let us begin."_

_Lily took out a roll of parchment and a quill, but she forgot her notes as soon as Dumbledore began to speak._

_"__As all of you are no doubt aware, the situation outside of Hogwarts has escalated over the past few months. The wizard who calls himself Lord Voldemort has become more active in England, whereas just a year ago, he confined himself abroad. Measures need to be taken to secure the school against attack, of course, we will need all hands on deck to accomplish this task. As you know, Hogwarts has many generations worth of protective enchantments and it would be very difficult for a break in to occur. That being said, Voldemort has not been caught yet, and seems to possess higher than average skills in concealment and trickery." Dumbledore had paused there, looking students in the eye with his piercing gaze._

_"__Lord Voldemort wishes to recruit Hogwarts students to his cause. As I have said before, he possesses a unique level of cunning and may succeed in this wish should all of us not be at the height of awareness at all times. We have no use for euphemisms at this point, so I feel that I may as well state this bluntly. You all sit in front of me today, representing the top students at the top wizarding school in England. Therefore, you are all targets. It is no secret that Lord Voldemort wishes to recruit young, clever, and willing witches and wizards. I trust that, being cleverer and more mature than the average Hogwarts students, you all will take this danger very seriously." Dumbledore paused once again, but there was no answering whispering between the prefects. Lily felt stunned and completely speechless. So the rumors had been right, then, or at least some of them. She met Remus' eyes and his expression mirrored how she felt, but there was something more there that Lily was surprised to see. Grim determination. She experienced a moment of doubt and a fleeting feeling of inadequacy because she herself did not immediately feel determined to fight as it appeared Remus did._

_"__It pains me to say this, because I feel as though it should be self-evident. But I would like to announce to you all that Hogwarts will not be supporting Lord Voldemort, or any of his followers or belief systems, in any way, shape, or form. Any student who exhibits such inappropriate behavior shall be brought directly to their head of house, who will act as he or she sees fit. This means that all of you, as prefects, need to be on the lookout for this sort of behavior in all students and ready to act as soon as you observe a breach in this new code of conduct."_

_Lily nodded seriously, feeling as though this task, at least, she could commit herself to fully. However, she also felt certain that this was not the main point that Dumbledore called them here specially for. Sure enough, Dumbledore continued his speech._

_"__Hogwarts has been in close contact with the Ministry of Magic over the past several weeks, and earlier this morning, we have reached an important decision. We are dealing with an unfortunate shortage of Aurors this year, and we foresee a need for an increased number of Aurors over the next couple of years. As some of you may know, typical Auror training takes an additional four years after one graduates Hogwarts. I have pointed out, and the Minister quite agrees, that we will need Hogwarts students to be fully trained Aurors much sooner than four or more years from now. And it is for that reason, that we open up a special program to the sixth and seventh year students of Hogwarts this year."_

_Lily had barely been able to pay attention to Dumbledore's explanation of the special program, which basically entailed a double course load for the remainder of sixth year, and all throughout seventh year. It would enable sixth years to graduate from Hogwarts and become Aurors the very next day. But Lily was too anxious to focus on something as simple as a double course load- that she could surely handle. But fighting Dark wizards? She wracked her brains, trying to recall everything she knew about the last time this had happened. Grindlewald's reign of terror had lasted decades before Dumbledore finally put a stop to it. And since that very wizard was now standing in front of her saying that he doesn't have enough Aurors on his side to fight Voldemort? Lily found that terrifying._

_It was only when Remus stood up next to her and people had begun filing out that Lily realized the meeting had adjourned. She made to stand up as well, but Dumbledore caught her eye and shook his head slightly. Remus sat back down. When everyone else had vacated the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore approached Lily and Remus with a kind eye._

_"__Hello, sir." Remus addressed Dumbledore. Lily remained silent._

_"__Hello, Remus, Lily. It is my wish that the two of you take part in this program. Am I to assume that you were planning to participate, even had I not asked you to do so?"_

_Remus nodded. "Of course, sir."_

_Lily hesitated. "I-"_

_Dumbledore's eyes pierced Lily's. "I see. Remus, forgive me, could you give the two of us some privacy for a moment?"_

_"__I- of course, sir," Remus faltered, casting a worried look at Lily. "See you later, Lil."_

_"__I'm sorry, Professor, it's just that I hadn't given it much thought." Lily hurried to try to explain herself. "Of course, I want to help, but I can't help but worry about my family."_

_Dumbledore smiled. "I'm quite pleased to hear that your family is the source of your hesitation, not concern for yourself, as it so easily could have been."_

_Lily didn't answer, looking down. This was not entirely true, of course, because she was terrified for herself as well as her family, and she suspected that Dumbledore knew this. The difference was, Lily knew how to take care of herself, whereas her family wouldn't even know what hit them._

_"__I understand your reluctance, and I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to protect your family, should there be any signs of danger for them. However, it is still my wish that you participate in this Auror program. You have a part to play."_

_Dumbledore did not wait for an answer, but changed the subject. The grim mood dissipated almost as quickly as it had come. "You have detention with Potter and Black this evening, I believe?"_

_"__Yes, Professor."_

_Dumbledore's eyes twinkled lightly. "Then let me give you fair warning at the persuasive powers of the two of them combined when they want to know something. I myself have found it impossible to refuse them information on certain occasions." He winked, and sent Lily on her way. "I will speak with you once again tomorrow."_

"Lily? Anybody home?" Lily blinked as James waved his hand in front of her eyes. "There she is!"

"What happened at the meeting?" Sirius asked as soon as it became clear that Lily was paying attention now.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone about it yet, technically," Lily told them. "But I think Dumbledore gave me license to tell the two of you."

At once, they both fell to their knees and started begging in earnest.

"Please, Lily? If you only tell us, I'll do your History of Magic homework for the rest of the year!"

"I'll get you a spot on the Quidditch team!"

"I'll stop losing so many points for Gryffindor!"

"I'll never ask you out again!" James cried suddenly, and Sirius and Lily both burst out laughing.

"Fine! I'll tell you, then! Just shut up, first."

And James and Sirius, who had trouble getting through normal school lessons without falling asleep (or at least causing some form of mischief), sat still in front of Lily, listening with rapt attention, never interrupting her once throughout her story.

Lily surveyed their reactions carefully. James had the same look on his face as Remus had when he first heard this news, while Sirius, on the other hand, looked completely gutted.

But they both had the same immediate response as soon as Lily stopped talking. "We'll do it."

And, weirdly, that was what made up Lily's mind once and for all. The way neither of them hesitated, how they both just trusted Dumbledore's judgment without question. And how they were both so willing to spring into action.

Lily wanted to be a part of that. All her life, she had never been part of the Muggle world, and she knew she never would be. She knew that, and that was fine. But if she weren't part of the _wizarding_ world… well, what would life be? She couldn't even imagine life without Hogwarts, without magic, and suddenly she realized that that's what it would be like. For Muggle born witches and wizards, there might as well be no Hogwarts if someone like Voldemort gained influence. Muggle-borns would have to grow up in hiding, or else just live as Muggles, never discovering the best part of their life.

She stood up quickly, brushing off her robes.

"I have to go find Dumbledore! I'll see you guys later."

James and Sirius looked at her in disbelief. "You can't just go, we're in detention!"

"What? Why-" James started, but Lily was already gathering up her things and hurrying out the door.

"Lily, wait!"

She turned around briefly. "If McGonagall comes by, cover for me!" Lily jumped down the steps of the owlry, and sprinted towards Dumbledore's office.

Although she should have been on a sharp lookout for McGonagall or Filch, or anyone else who knew she was supposed to be in detention, Lily might as well have been blind as she ran across the castle in search of Dumbledore. As she rounded a corner, she hit someone hard and went sprawling.

"Sorry, sorry!" Lily got up and gathered up the papers that had spilled out of her bag before turning around. "Are you-"

"Lily." Her name rolled off his tongue, seemingly without his control and he bit his lip, scowling, apparently unsure what to do in this situation. _Severus_. Indeed, the two of them hadn't been alone together for over a year now and Lily was quite uncomfortable, herself. She cleared her throat.

"Sorry. Are you ok?"

He ignored her words completely, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Lily bristled. "None of your business."

Severus made a grab for the jumble of papers in her arms and Lily jerked back. "You're off to pledge your life to Dumbledore," Severus stated sourly.

"And if I am?"

"Then you're letting yourself be brainwashed. That tale that your dear Headmaster spun for you wasn't the whole truth."

Lily was confused. "You weren't at the meeting. You weren't even supposed to know what it was about yet."

Severus laughed harshly. "As if that would stop me. Malfoy, of course, told us everything."

Lily clenched her jaw. "Look, Severus. These sporadic attacks on muggle borns and muggles have been going on since I found out about the wizarding world. Just because you've grown up in a sheltered, protected world, doesn't mean the rest of us have. It's time to start _doing_ something about it."

Severus looked so mad he could have jinxed Lily but instead he just stood there, mute and staring.

Lily continued. "You! You take it all for granted, don't you? Always knowing that you'd have a place here, you never thought about what life would be like without your little cult. You might not have any real friends, but those of us who have, know quite well what it would be like to lose them. To lose this. Hogwarts. I'm going to fight for those people. You know why? Because I can, Severus. Because I'm good at this, and I'm good at dueling, and I care about Hogwarts and everything it stands for. Now, you look me in the eye and understand that this is me talking, not my _dear_ Headmaster talking for me."

Severus regarded her calmly with stone cold eyes. "Fine, Evans. Just remember that you did it first. You burned this bridge, when I could have protected you. Instead, we're at war."

Lily did her best not to flinch at this word.

Severus gave her a knowing look, playing on the fear he saw clearly on Lily's face. "It's not going to be my fault when someone hurts you. I tried to warn you." He fell silent, just gazing fixedly at Lily. "But," he added carefully, "my offer will always stand. Don't blame me if you get hurt, but you can always come to me for protection. It's never too late."

Lily was so mad she didn't even think about it but drew her wand at once. Severus faltered back a step, but to his credit, didn't draw his own wand.

"I will never ask for help from such a pathetic excuse for a wizard." Lily looked him in the eye. "You say we're at war; well, so be it. And I'll give you a warning of my own. I'm taking this very seriously. I won't hesitate if you stand in my way."

Severus started. "Lily! You can't be serious- you can't mean-"

Lily stuck her chin out defiantly. "I think you know exactly what I mean. And I think we both know who would be able to walk away from that situation. So stay away from me, Severus. Goodbye."

It was all Lily could do not to turn and flee the corridor. She forced herself to walk calmly back the way she'd come, trying desperately not to hyperventilate. Suddenly, talking to Dumbledore didn't seem so important and so she made her way back to the owlry to finish her detention.

By the time she got there, James and Sirius had the room spotless and Lily was holding back sobs. She leaned against the wall, sliding down until she hit the floor. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend that nothing had happened. It didn't work, of course, not least because Sirius and James descended on her at once.

"What happened?"

"Where'd you just go?"

"Hey- are you crying?"

Lily opened her eyes reluctantly. "I'm not crying," she said dully. "I ran into Severus on my way to Dumbledore's office. I don't want to talk about it."

"WHAT? Did he say something to you?" James gasped and lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. "He didn't threaten you, did he? I swear to Merlin, I'll jinx him into next year if he so much as-"

Lily glared. "Don't you dare!"

Sirius looked up in alarm. "What? No, Lily, you can't just let him push you around like that!"

"I already threatened one person at wand point today," Lily snapped. "Don't make me do it again, Black." She took a breath. "We're not talking about this. I'm going to sleep." She pulled out her wand and conjured a long, fluffy cushion and a blanket and pillow. "Wake me up when you need me for the magic ward."

Lily sank into her makeshift bed gratefully, falling asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Sirius shrugged and conjured a bed of his own. "Take first watch?"

James groaned. "Fine. I'm waking you up in an hour, though."


	5. Chapter 5

When the week finally ended, Lily felt like crying with relief. Between mid-year exams, more meetings with Dumbledore and the rest of the prefects, and detention every night till midnight, Lily had had very little time for anything besides schoolwork, and that unfortunately included sleeping and eating. When she woke up on Saturday morning, feeling better than she had all week, she was greeted with a completely empty dormitory. The slant of the sunlight coming in through the window indicated that it was already afternoon. The watch that her father had given her for her seventeenth birthday confirmed this suspicion.

She sat up, wincing because she was stiff from lying still for so long, and found a handwritten note on her bedside table. Strange, she thought, because anything Brita or Alice had to say, they probably would have just woke her up to say it.

Hey Lily, it read,

It's Peter. I hope I didn't wake you earlier. Remus would have come up to find you, but he can't climb the staircase, and neither can James or Sirius, for that matter. You'll probably find out why soon enough, but I'm under strict instruction not to tell you. Anyway, they want you to meet us in our dorm tonight. Don't let anyone see you come up and don't tell anyone where you're going!

Lily frowned. She figured she'd get an explanation for everything later that night, but it was very curious, indeed, how Peter seemed to have mastered some sort of skill that enabled him to hoodwink the staircase charmed by Godric Gryffindor himself (and reinforced by many a headmaster since). Lily supposed polyjuice potion could work; in fact, she overheard people discussing that very issue on several occasions. But it had never been proven, to the best of Lily's knowledge. It was very difficult to get ingredients for the potion and even more difficult to brew (although she suspected that it would be no trouble for James or Sirius), and it was on Filch's insanely long list of banned potions. But even if the Marauders had succeeded in brewing the potion, then any one of them would have been able to come up into her dormitory. Lily shrugged it off. Like Peter had said, she'd find out soon enough.

Lily spent most of the day doing arithmancy homework with Brita in the common room and catching up on her dorm's gossip that she'd missed out on while she'd been in detention.

"So you'll never guess who asked Alice to Hogsmede yesterday," Brita announced when they had finished the weekend's assignment.

Lily was not entirely interested in this new development because Alice got asked to Hogsmede often enough, and so far, had turned down all of her pursuers.

"Who?"

"Frank!"

Lily had to muffle her laughter. "Longbottom? There's no way Frank Longbottom asked Alice to Hogsmede. Merlin, I hope she didn't turn him down too harshly!"

"And Alice said yes!"

"WHAT?" Lily shrieked. "No, I needed her to come with me and Potter and Black and their gang."

Brita furrowed her brow in confusion, and Lily realized that she never got around to mentioning her non-date with Potter next weekend. She checked herself.

"Right, I mean, wow. But, um, why?"

"Well, apparently she couldn't bear the idea of turning him down, he looked so hopeful."

"And that's just going to make it ten times worse when she dumps him later," Lily hissed. "Or realizes that they weren't even on a real date!"

"Actually." Brita leaned in and whispered, "I think she might like Frank."

Lily was saved the trouble of responding to this rather shocking revelation when Alice herself walked into the common room and headed straight for where Brita and Lily were sitting.

"Hey guys!"

"Hi Alice," Brita said cheerfully. "Good quidditch practice?"

It was hardly a necessary question, because Alice was covered in mud from head to toe, and was shivering violently. But she smiled. "Yeah, it was alright, considering. I reckon Black may just work us all to exhaustion this week, since he and Potter missed so much practice last week."

Lily hummed sympathetically.

Alice narrowed her eyes at Lily. "Today, Sirius let slip that you're going on a date with James next weekend! Why am I always the last to know?" she griped.

"It's not a date! Honestly, Sirius, Remus, and Peter are all coming with us. And they weren't supposed to go broadcasting it around," Lily grumbled.

"Oh, like no one would have noticed when you walk around Hogsmede together all day?" Alice pointed out sarcastically.

"Just like you're hoping that no one will notice you and _Longbottom_ together?" Lily asked slyly.

Alice went bright red, and Brita smirked at Lily. "Told you."

"Wow. You were right." Lily checked her watch and realized that they had missed dinner. She was supposed to meet the Marauders now. "But, I've, erm, got to go… do something real quick. You know… prefect stuff."

Alice and Brita barely noticed her walk away, so involved were they discussing the Hogsmede trip.

As Lily walked up the staircase to the sixth year boys dormitory ten minutes later, she wondered, not for the first time, why a girl was allowed to enter a room with four to six teenage boys by herself, but a single, solitary boy was not allowed to face an entire room full of girls. She'd read in _Hogwarts, a History_ that the founders had considered girls to be more trustworthy than boys, but she still felt as though she was entering a situation that had more potential for danger than a girl taking a boy up to her dormitory. However, for some unexplained reason, Lily felt as though she trusted the four boys completely. So she walked up to the sixth year door and knocked three times.

"Jeez, Lily, next time just send us a patronus. Nobody actually knocks on doors, anymore." Sirius greeted her with a huge grin, and Lily felt herself smile back. His cheerful mood was infectious.

"Last season?" she asked sarcastically.

"Exactly!"

Lily rolled her eyes and gave the room a quick once over. "I've never been in a boy's dorm before." It was dirtier, if not messier than her own dorm, to be sure. Dirty laundry was strewn pretty much everywhere, and Lily was a little surprised that James hadn't insisted that they clean up for her. The room smelled a bit off, too, a little like sweaty clothes masked by the scent of deodorant. And there was mud tracked everywhere, although Lily noted that James and Sirius looked perfectly clean, even though they'd just come from the same exact quidditch practice as Alice.

James smirked. "Like what you see?"

"He means the room," Remus said quickly. Peter chuckled.

"Didn't you just come from quidditch?" Lily asked.

"Course they did," Peter confirmed. "They scourgified themselves. Well, James had to do Sirius, cause Sirius is an idiot who never learned a cleaning spell in his life."

Sirius grinned. "Whereas James here's an expert. Right catch, this one!" Sirius leaned over to ruffle James hair.

James jerked away. "Git."

Remus cleared his throat. "Alrighty, then. Lily, why don't you sit down." He patted the spot on the floor next to him. "Sorry about the mess, I suppose."

"But not that sorry," Peter added.

"Not sorry at all, more like," said Sirius.

"Tell me why Peter's the only one who can come up the stairs to my dormitory," Lily demanded suddenly, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.

"Ok. Well, it's a long story," James began.

"Not that long, though, 'cause she knows about Remus already," Sirius interrupted.

"Ok! Yes. It's not as long as it could be," James agreed, "but it's still complicated, and it may or may not involve us breaking the law…."

"Hint," Peter whispered conspiratorially, "it involves us breaking the law."

"Not me," Remus said.

James considered. "Very true. Never thought about it before, come to mention it. But anyway." He cleared his throat. "How much do you know about werewolves?"

"Quite a bit, actually. We studied them in third year, remember?"

Remus scoffed. "Well, if you only read the school books, I don't think you got a very accurate account."

"Actually, I read from several sources. Including a firsthand account from a werewolf who lived about fifty years ago."

James nodded. "So you're aware, then, that a werewolf's transformation is the most painful thing imaginable- second only to the cruciatus curse. A werewolf who is locked up at the full moon, as Remus was, scratches and bites himself because he craves blood so intensely. When he wakes up, the injuries can be very severe, which is why Remus could spend up to a week in the hospital wing after the full moon a couple of years ago."

Lily nodded, slightly uncomfortable. She had a hard time discussing other people's pain sometimes.

James continued. "Well, you may have noticed that most of that has stopped ever since the beginning of last year. And it's not because of some new cure or potion that was invented. It's because of the three of us."

There was no question of whether James was telling the truth. Remus was looking at his friend with such sincere, overwhelming gratitude, that Lily believed every word out of his mouth.

James hesitated a second before he spoke again in an uncertain voice, keeping his eyes on her face the entire time. "Sirius, Remus, and I are unregistered animagi."

Remus, Peter, and Sirius all stared at Lily, too, waiting for a reaction from the person who was, undoubtedly, the first outsider to know the truth.

Lily could feel the blank expression stuck on her face, and she felt quite incapable of changing it into anything else. She didn't know whether to marvel at their skill and dedication, or scold them for being so stupid as to do something that dangerous without telling anyone. She settled for staring at the four of them stupidly with her mouth open.

"But- I mean, surely there's no way that-" she took a breath. "These things take fully qualified wizards years to accomplish. When did you start all this?"

"They first started looking into it behind my back during third year, when we first learned about animagi," Remus said. "Well, Sirius and James knew most of that already, because of the whole pure blood thing and, believe it or not, James' grandfather was an animagi, too. Anyway, they managed to keep this idea from me until half way through third year. That was when they finally were ready to start brewing this potion which is one of the steps. James and Sirius are pretty clever with potions, as you know, but this one was much too complicated, and they didn't know that often, up to four or five wizards at a time are required to brew this specific potion. There was just too much going on, and it got out of hand. I came back to the dorm, having spent the whole day in the library, to find James, Sirius, and Peter frantically trying to put out the fire that they'd started. Aguamenti wasn't working, you see."

"And after all this you allowed them to go through with this?" Lily screeched. She recalled the fire in the boys dormitory with perfect clarity, and couldn't imagine Remus condoning something that dangerous.

"Well, as you probably remember, we couldn't figure out how to stop the fire, so I told everyone to just cast some spells to protect our stuff and the walls and floor and everything, because what started out as a small fire from the potion gone wrong, was rapidly spreading and the smoke was getting pretty intense. We all cast bubble head charms on ourselves so we could breathe, and then I tried it on the fire. It worked, the fire stopped spreading, and we quickly devised a lie for McGonagall to make it seem as though we'd just been playing around, rather than brewing an illegal potion."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "And she bought it?"

Remus shrugged. "Turns out Peter's a fantastic liar. So, yeah, she bought it. But still, we were in huge trouble. You might remember the legendary six month, four days a week, two hours a day detention, plus the docking of one thousand points from Gryffindor, between the four of us. There were so many illegal ingredients that the teachers found afterwards in the remnants of the potion, so the punishment was a lot worse than it would have been. Luckily, we had the sense to throw some other ingredients into the mess so that the professors wouldn't realize what these three gits were trying to do." The other three boys huffed indignantly. "You _were_ being gits," Remus reminded them. "Well, anyway, it was a long time before they tried anything again; we had to wait until summer holiday. We basically camped out in James' place- well, Sirius already lived there, practically- but Peter and I came over every day, and we researched and brewed potions and cast enchantments in secret all summer long. You'd be very surprised what four Hogwarts students entering fourth year can accomplish in two and a half months. We gathered enough information and brewed enough of the potions that they'd have to take to be able to start the process."

Lily knew that in order to become an animagus, a wizard had to spend several months taking different potions, about once a week, before he could even attempt to start trying to transform. The kicker was, though, that these potions had to be brewed by the wizard, or else they wouldn't work. That was one of the reasons that so few people became animagi.

"After the first four months, you can start really trying to become an animagus. It's just a whole slew of wandless magic and there are about a million different steps. And it all depends on what kind of animal you become- and you get no choice with that. So if you're animagus form is, say, a bird, you're going to have to do things differently than if you're an amphibian, or a mammal.

"It took them all that year, and the entire summer holiday of intensely focused effort before they got it to work for the first time. James became a stag, Sirius a dog, and Peter a rat. They were all ecstatic to find out that once you transform once, it's easy to do it again."

"Prove it."

"You don't believe me?"

"Of course I don't! I'd be a complete fool to believe any of you. If you say you've convinced McGonagall that you were only playing around when you were really brewing illegal potions, you guys could make anyone believe anything. Show me."

"If you insist," Sirius said, a little too eager for someone who supposedly was being inconvenienced by showing Lily his transformation. His shape blurred for an instant, and then he was gone, replaced by a huge black, shaggy dog.

"You look like the grim!"

Sirius was back, grinning widely. "Yup. James, show her your transformation."

James blurred into a stag, and he had to kneel down to avoid hitting the ceiling with his antlars. He switched back after only a few seconds, and Peter followed suit, shrinking down to a plump little rat and switching to his normal self a second later.

Lily was flabbergasted. She coursed through a wide range of emotions, from shock, admiration, irritation, concern, anger, and finally settled on jealousy. "I wish I were an animagus." Obviously, she hadn't been friends with them at all when they were learning how to transform. But she couldn't help but feel indignant, wishing she had been included in this. Anything these three could do, Lily felt sure that she could as well. "It looks like a lot of fun."

"It actually is," James said. "I mean, it's the ultimate disguise, you can go anywhere, especially because you don't have the physical limitations of being human to worry about. Sirius and I are a million times stronger in our animagus forms, and Peter can go anywhere he likes without notice. In the castle, or outside."

"There's something else." Lily was sure of this. She'd seen each one of the four boys appear seemingly out of thin air on multiple occasions. Remus wasn't an animagus, and he often showed up in unexpected places, or had information that seemed impossible for him to know. There was something else that gave the marauders such an edge. After all, Lily was every bit as clever as they were.

"Two things, actually," Sirius said. "One, James inherited. But the other, we created all by ourselves. We'll save the best for last."

Taking that as his cue, James began to dig around in his trunk. Several minutes later, he came up with a silvery piece of fabric. Lily wondered briefly why he hadn't used an accio charm, but then she caught full sight of the fabric. It was a long, flowing, silvery cloak that shimmered in and out of existence.

"An invisibility cloak," Lily identified the object in a hushed voice. James nodded, and thrust it forward.

"Wanna try it on?"

"Yes!" Lily exclaimed at once, jumping up to put it on. She disappeared completely from view, to the point where she surprised herself by bumping her arm against Sirius' bed post. It was nothing like being disslusioned. "It's perfect." She caught the looks of amusement on everyone's faces. "No, I mean, it's really perfect. How old is this?"

James shrugged. "I don't know. I never really thought about it."

"Well, it's some very powerful magic. I'd say take good care of it, but I don't think that anything could damage this cloak. You can't accio it?"

"Nope."

"And it'd never been ripped, or torn, or lost its power?"

"Nope. And as far as we can figure, no one else knows about it," James said.

"Good thing, too, because it's probably breaking about fifty school rules." Remus chuckled, like he was just making an offhand comment, but Lily didn't miss the fact that this was a test.

"As long as you're not doing anything too illegal with the cloak, it's not actually on the list of banned items, you know."

"Well, that's a relief," Peter said sarcastically. "Cause if it was, we were all set to turn ourselves in, weren't we, mates?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "What exactly is it you do with this cloak, anyway?"

Sirius seemed to be considering how to phrase something. "Next time we do something, we'll take you along."

Lily shrugged. That was good enough for her. "Ok."

She handed the cloak back to James, who threw it across the room, landing it neatly into his open trunk.

"And now, the moment we've all been waiting for…" Sirius began excitedly. "Accio map!"

A bit of parchment flew from the top of one of their bedside tables into Sirius' waiting hands. He oriented the seemingly blank parchment carefully and placed it into Lily's hands. Of course, another test.

This was a magically enchanted object, enchanted by four wizards that she knew quite well. Lily knew a thing or two about magically enchanted objects. She would need some sort of password, code, or spell, to get this map to appear, but she would have to be on the Marauders' side. She was sure that this map could read her intent as she attempted to get it to show itself.

Taking a deep breath, Lily tapped her wand on the parchment twice. "Reveal your secrets," she demanded, concentrating on all the mischief she'd ever made in her life. Not a whole lot, but she hoped that if the emotions were real, the map would grant her request.

A series of words appeared on the page in a small, neat script.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good.

Lily smiled and repeated the phrase out loud, tapping the parchment once again with her wand. She was about to brag about how their enchantment had let her in, but her words caught in her throat when the images began to appear.

"You guys made a map of the entirety of Hogwarts and the grounds." Lily stated, dumbfounded. "And it has secret passages leading into Hogsmeade. And you're monitoring every move of every single student, professor, and faculty member at this school."

"And any innocent bystander who comes to visit," Sirius added, grinning cheerfully.

Lily let her breath out slowly. "I'll say you're up to no good." She paused, not knowing quite what to say. "And Dumbledore doesn't know about this, either?"

"Well, he's got better things to worry about, hasn't he?" James pointed out.

"I suppose. Well, I must say, the four of you are without a doubt, the smartest, albeit craziest, group of people I know." Lily shook her head in wonder. The map depicted four secret passages leading out of Hogwarts to what looked to be the direction of Hogsmeade. She located the boys dormitory and saw her own dot next to dots that were labeled James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. She saw the dot labeled Albus Dumbledore pacing back and forth in his office. It suddenly occurred to her that she still had one thing to take care of before she went to bed.

She handed the map back to James, who tapped it with his wand. "Mischief managed."

Lily nodded in acknowledgement of this password to wipe the map. She stood up. "I still haven't gone to see Dumbledore." She paused on her way out the door. "You're really not going to make me sign some blood oath swearing I won't tell your secrets?"  
>The four guys shook their heads.<br>"We trust you," Sirius told her.

"You know, trust is sometimes considered a fatal flaw."

James spoke up indignantly. "Well, if the four of us didn't trust each other, we'd be nowhere right now. I trust you, just the same as I trust any of these three-" he gestured to Sirius, Peter, and Remus- "and if not everyone here can say that, then we've got nothing." He glared around angrily at the other three Marauders and Lily, daring them to jump up and contradict him.

The four of them all began speaking at once, assuring him that yes, they do all trust each other, and of course James was right.

"Good." He turned to smile at Lily sardonically. "Then, no, Lily, we won't require an oath in blood tonight."

Lily turned away to hide her smile as she left the room.

Wondering the hallways of Hogwarts at night was always nice and quiet, and seemed to give Lily peace of mind. She had disillusioned herself so as not to be seen, although ever since fifth year, when she'd become a prefect, wondering Hogwarts after hours was perfectly acceptable. Before then, she used to sneak out at night all the time, creeping up to the astronomy tower, gazing at the night sky, feeling the cool breeze of the night air on her skin. She'd been caught once or twice, but had countless narrow escapes, and she wondered suddenly what it would have been like to explore Hogwarts as a first year with an invisibility cloak. Lily shook her head. James was just about one of the luckiest people she had ever met.

She'd taken the long route to Dumbledore's office, zigzagging mindlessly through the deserted corridors, mulling over her decision, trying to get the wording exactly right. Much quicker than she'd expected, she came face to face with the stone gargoyle guarding the spiral staircase. No sooner than she'd realized that she didn't have the password, the gargoyle leapt aside to reveal Dumbledore, himself, holding the door wide open.

"Professor!"

"Good evening, Lily."

Thoroughly embarrassed, Lily tapped her wand to her head, undid her disillusionment charm, and followed Dumbledore up to his office.

"How did you know it was me, Sir?"

Dumbledore smiled mysteriously. "Magic leaves its traces. I've been watching you work for five and a half years, now. I know your style."

Lily contemplated this in silence.

"I believe you have something you'd like to tell me?" Dumbledore prompted, eyeing her from the top of his half-moon spectacles.

Lily swallowed. "Right. Professor, I thought about what you said to me the other day. I want to join. Or take part, rather, in the program. I want to protect the Wizarding world, and Hogwarts, and Muggle-borns."

Dumbledore smiled broadly. "Excellent. We shall commence a week from tomorrow."

"And… sir, I'm sorry that I didn't, you know…." Lily stumbled through a painfully awkward apology. "I'm sorry it took me a couple days to figure it out."

Dumbledore continued to smile kindly. "I'm glad you did, Miss Evans. I believe you will succeed enormously at this training program, and I feel sure that you have a great part to play in the coming war. I'm pleased that you've taken the time to consider all angles, and that you are able to commit fully."

Lily did not flinch away from this proclamation, as she once might have. Instead, she felt a surge of pride, and the fierce determination that had seemed so elusive only days ago. She was ready.

**Author's note:** Thanks for reading, everyone! This has been a blast! I really appreciate all of the favorites, follows, and reviews you guys left. I started writing "Would You Like to Be My Friend?" two years ago, and it was originally supposed to be a collection of five stories like this one. I had planned for each of the Marauders to have a part of the story told in their point of view, and for it to end with the deaths of James and Lily/ the first defeat of Voldemort.

Of course, it's been two years, and I haven't made much progress with the rest of this story because being a college student is incredibly time consuming. I'm hoping that I'll be able to start updating this story again over winter break, but by no means can I guarantee it. So I'm marking this story as complete because this is the end of Lily's part and I think of this as a decent stopping place, anyway. If I come back to it, I'll change the status back to WIP. :)

Until then, I hope everyone's lives are filled with happiness and creativity :D


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